Congress
Capitol agenda: Trump officials try to calm ‘slush’ fund fury
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has a chance Tuesday to convince Republicans he’s dropping plans for a controversial $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
But it’s unclear if members of his party will be swayed enough to unjam President Donald Trump’s larger agenda.
Senate Republicans — enough of whom returned from recess still furious about the pot of money — will discuss the status of the fund during a closed-door lunch Tuesday, according to several Republican senators.
Hours later Blanche is set to testify to House appropriators certain to grill him on his statements last month that the fund could be used to pay people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
That testimony set off a furor that scuttled planned votes on separate legislation to fund agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.
Republican senators, including some top leaders, said a Justice Department statement Monday that it would “abide by” a federal judge’s ruling to temporarily halt any payouts of the fund was not enough to calm concerns.
“It’s pretty clear that the president has to say very explicitly that there’s not going to be a weaponization fund,” Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley told reporters.
“The reconciliation bill looks like a broken arm with the bones sticking out,” said Sen. John Kennedy. “It won’t move this week, in my opinion, unless we have some resolution on the weaponization fund.”
Also testifying Tuesday is Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is expected to underscore for Senate Appropriations the urgency in passing the larger $70 billion funding package for immigration enforcement agencies.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he believed the DOJ statement made it “clear that they’re not proceeding with the fund,” but leaders are “still sorting through” whether the statement was sufficient to satisfy members.
Several GOP senators didn’t close the door when asked about adding language related to the fund to the current party-line bill or supporting separate legislation. And some Senate Republicans could still vote to add a preemptive ban to the funding bill or support amendments — along with Democrats who label it a “slush” fund — that would limit or nix the account, four Republican aides acknowledged.
Such a step, if it’s not explicitly backed by Trump, could threaten to sink the overall bill.
Thune said that Republicans should know by Tuesday if they are going to be able to revive the immigration enforcement bill this week.
What else we’re watching:
— JOHNSON CAN’T STIFLE IRAN WAR POWERS DEFECTORS: Speaker Mike Johnson and House GOP leaders are all but certain they can’t stave off handing Trump an embarrassing loss this week on his military campaign in Iran. A critical mass of Republicans are poised to break ranks and vote with Democrats to rein in Trump’s ability to continue the Iran war, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private talks.
— PLATNER’S SENATE FAN CLUB STANDS FIRM AMID SCANDALS: Senators who have backed Maine Senate Democratic candidate Graham Platner are dismissing concerns that a litany of potentially damaging stories could endanger the party’s prospects to pick up the seat.Platner is set to meet with a group of Democratic senators in Washington Tuesday after new reporting surfaced over the weekend that he exchanged sexual text messages with other women while married.
Meredith Lee Hill, Jessica Piper, Lisa Kashinsky and Andrew Howard contributed to this report.
Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley rescheduled a planned vote on Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general late Friday in a preemptive move as negotiations between the Trump administration and GOP holdouts continue.
The vote, now set for Tuesday after a scheduled Thursday vote was postponed, isn’t an indication that a deal allowing for Blanche’s confirmation is near, so much as it is a nod to Judiciary Committee rules that require three days of notice for a panel meeting.
There is no sign that President Donald Trump is about to acquiesce to the unflinching demands of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who wants a controversial settlement agreement between Trump and the IRS substantially pared back.
Cornyn, who lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed candidate, wants the Justice Department to nullify a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and limit the scope of a tax audit immunity component of the pact.
Trump told reporters earlier Friday the fund is “dead” but added “I wish it weren’t.”
“I’d like to see them compensated,” he added, referring to people he considers victims of government abuse, including participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
To advance Tuesday, Blanche needs to pick up Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), another senator on the panel with similar concerns. He can’t lose any GOP votes if he wants to be reported favorably out of the Judiciary Committee.
“Chairman Grassley wants Todd Blanche’s nomination to be successful,” said a Judiciary Committee spokesperson, who declined to be named. “Noticing the markup gives more time for the White House to secure the votes for the President’s nominee. Grassley would like to see Blanche confirmed before the August recess as he has an excellent record restoring law and order and keeping Americans safe.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.
Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.
Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.
After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.
He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.
Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.
President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.
Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.
“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.
Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.
“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”
On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.
“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.
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